MBB: Liberty League

[Bartman]

Fast paced see-saw game in Ithaca last night as the Bombers get the win over Hobart
88-85. Both teams were happy to play with reckless abandon as each had 18 turnovers in a game where Ithaca surged at the right time and Hobart fell short with a 3pointer followed by an inbound steal to get within one , but couldn't close it out. Ithaca is looking to get back in the mix and has the horses to cause upsets in the league race. At this point, it looks like Union, RPI and Vassar are the teams to beat. If Hobart won last night, I would have them in the top group, but this young team is still developing.   

[stlawus]

Very bizarre coaching from who was at one point the premier coach in the Liberty League.  Skidmore was down 15-20 points most of the game, with SLU taking out starters with 7 minutes left.  Burke leaves all of his starters in including his point guard who played all 40 minutes, as well as the team's leading scorer for 38 minutes (did not sub the 2nd half). You're playing on the road in the first game of a back to back.  Just incredibly bizarre.

[UfanBill]

16 players got at least 2 minutes of floor time and 14 scored as Union defeated Bard 89-60 Friday night. Jack Plesser led the Garnet with 18 points in only 24 minutes. Things promise to be a lot tougher Saturday as Union hosts 9-3, 5-0 LL Vassar.

[stlawus]

Vassar now into sole possession of 1st place. No buzzer beater for Union this time, even though it looked like they would get yet another opportunity. RPI still up there with the same record as Union though Union currently has the tiebreaker. Not sure what to think of the Engineers. They are getting 200th percentile offense so one has to think a shoe has to drop at some point, but it hasn't. Their defense has always carried them with very hit or miss offense, and this year the defense hasn't been as tight but the offense has been orders of magnitude better.

SLU gets a very good win over Hobart, overcoming an injury 3 minutes into the game to Downs Jr and some serious ref chicanery at the end with the clock. Very classic SLU-Hobart game.  SLU's managing of the minutes last night certainly helped today.  Hobart is yet again a very tough team on the boards, that's just that program's DNA.  Hobart forced SLU into a very cold shooting stretch in the 2nd half and then the teams kept exchanging and 1 opportunities to make it an exciting finish.  When SLU was up 2 with 7 seconds left Hobart got a decent look to tie it but couldn't get it to roll in. That's where home court advantage comes to play.  Only thing I noticed about Hobart is a lack of clear ball handler and floor general, but otherwise are basically a carbon copy of every team of the last 10 years. They have their formula and stick to it for good reason.

[UfanBill]

Vassar 76 - Union 74...Just another Liberty League battle last night in Schenectady. Vassar jumped out to a quick double digit lead over the Garnet who looked like they were not ready to play. They held that lead  throughout the first half behind the play of big Parker Neuenhaus and Shea Fitzgerald. Leading 38-27 at the half the Brewers upped that to 49-32 before the Garnet Chargers dug in. Jack Plesser and Tanner Tedesco went to work and eventually Union took it's first lead with 5:47 left 64-63 on a Tedesco 3...Two clutch free throws by Union's Christian Dufort tied the game at 74-74 with 15 seconds left. Fitzgerald hit a pull-up jumper to put Vassar back ahead. It looked like everything was in place for another Union miracle...BUT...With 3.2 seconds left Union's attempted inbounds pass to an open Matt Garside sailed high off his extended arm to Vassar's Sebastion Medina. Medina was immediately fouled but here's were it got weird. With 1.2 seconds on the clock Medina missed both shots and on the rebound a whistle seemed to indicate that Union's Jack Plesser had been fouled?...After a long table discussion (and me watching repeated replays) the refs called both coaches together and eventually waived the game over. What???   Union coach Chris Murphy seemed to be OK with the decision (me not so much) and Union had it's first LL loss...you can watch it here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1ul0GBr-h8     

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I was watching live and Pat went back to review the video.  What we think happened was that the refs decided the clock stopped too quickly on that last rebound and that time should've expired before any whistles and thus the game was over.  It was very confusing.

[mrhoopfan]

Very bizarre coaching from who was at one point the premier coach in the Liberty League.  Skidmore was down 15-20 points most of the game, with SLU taking out starters with 7 minutes left.  Burke leaves all of his starters in including his point guard who played all 40 minutes, as well as the team's leading scorer for 38 minutes (did not sub the 2nd half). You're playing on the road in the first game of a back to back.  Just incredibly bizarre.

What made him the "premier coach in the league"?.Recruiter? Sure...Coach, I disagree....Skidmore has always had several guys that were scholarship level players

[stlawus]

Very bizarre coaching from who was at one point the premier coach in the Liberty League.  Skidmore was down 15-20 points most of the game, with SLU taking out starters with 7 minutes left.  Burke leaves all of his starters in including his point guard who played all 40 minutes, as well as the team's leading scorer for 38 minutes (did not sub the 2nd half). You're playing on the road in the first game of a back to back.  Just incredibly bizarre.

What made him the "premier coach in the league"?.Recruiter? Sure...Coach, I disagree....Skidmore has always had several guys that were scholarship level players

Between 2010-2020 Skidmore won 4 regular season titles and 5 tournament championships. Can say it was just because of recruiting but recruiting is part of coaching. And you still have to win the games. I don't think many would have disagreed with that moniker in 2019.  Now it's no longer the case.

[Bartman]

After a disappointing trip up North, splitting with Clarkson and SLU(Congrats to a surging Saint team), looking forward to Hobart hosting Union and RPI this weekend and finding out if the Statesmen can get back in the LL Championship race. Hobart has the raw talent but perhaps not the experience yet. They can play fast and chuck with Union but the RPI grind game could be maddening.

[UfanBill]

Union 90 - Hobart 72...The game started as a battle between Hobart's big man Dorian Paki and Union's Jack Plesser who had his hands full trying to stop Paki down low. Paki outmuscled Plesser getting him not only in foul trouble but also off his game offensively. Fortunately for the Garnet the other three of their big four came to the forefront and the teams went back and forth to a halftime 38-38 tie...Once again it seemed like Union head coach Chris Murphy had the halftime answer. The Garnet Chargers hit the second half floor and played nearly perfect basketball to run away from the Statesmen out scoring them 52-34 from there. Tanner Tedesco had 24, Matthew Garside 21, Christian Dufort 14 and Plesser who had only 2 late free throws in the first half contributed 10 more to finish with 12.  6'11" Scott Schmitt had 13 good minutes neutralizing Hobart down low...For Hobart Paki finished with an impressive 26 highlighted by at least four thunderous dunks. 

[stlawus]

Clarkson with the underrated win the of the night.  Impressive showing at home against Ithaca.

SLU got some unfortunate injury news with Downs Jr having an upper body injury that will probably keep him out a while if not the rest of the season.  I didn't think it was too bad when he got the injury against Hobart but it turned out to be more serious. However, the freshmen class for the Saints showed out tonight against RIT. With Suriano hitting his shots from deep and being Downs' replacement in the starting lineup SLU did not miss a beat.

[Jersey42]

I have only been able to watch a portion of RPI's games, and the one's I have seen have all been via streaming.  That said, I am very impressed that they are doing as well as they are.  Here are a bunch of somewhat random observations:

• Mark Gilbride has proven himself to be an excellent coach.  His teams always play great team defense.  If you don't buy into the system, you do not get playing time.
• Seven of the top eight can all hit the three.  There are good shooting nights and bad ones, but they are not dependent on one or two three-point threats.
• They have been in every game they have played except Union.  Union played very well and pretty much dominated them throughout.
• The other two losses that I witnessed, came down to clutch long-range three-point shooting by the opposition.
• RPI was up at least 14 points in the second half of three games, and they gave up much of the lead late in the game.  The still managed to pull out the win in all three.
• Injuries have really hurt them, and it may get worse.  Four of the normal eight-man rotation have missed games.  This includes three of the five starters from game one.  Two of them are currently on the sidelines and Dylan Matchett's injury against RIT looked serious.
• A promising freshman from last season who got meaningful playing time transferred out.  He went to an SEC school and is not playing basketball.
• PJ Scalisi and Andrew Deppe have been healthy and played very well all year long. Both are juniors and both have started every game since their freshman year (with the exception of a couple of senior nights). With RPI's offensive philosophy, neither one will put up the stats of some of the better LL players.  But they are among the best.
• After limited minutes last season, sophomore Billy Feeks has started most games.  He has been a good ball handler and a pleasant surprise from three-point range.
• With all of the injuries, freshman Kellen Driscoll stepped into the starting lineup in early December and he has remained there ever since.
• The biggest concern is the injuries that are forcing people to play more minutes. This can hurt, especially on the second game of the back-to-backs.
• The biggest positive is they are getting contributions from many people, and a bad shooting night by one or two is possible to overcome.

[Bartman]

Union 90 - Hobart 72...The game started as a battle between Hobart's big man Dorian Paki and Union's Jack Plesser who had his hands full trying to stop Paki down low. Paki outmuscled Plesser getting him not only in foul trouble but also off his game offensively. Fortunately for the Garnet the other three of their big four came to the forefront and the teams went back and forth to a halftime 38-38 tie...Once again it seemed like Union head coach Chris Murphy had the halftime answer. The Garnet Chargers hit the second half floor and played nearly perfect basketball to run away from the Statesmen out scoring them 52-34 from there. Tanner Tedesco had 24, Matthew Garside 21, Christian Dufort 14 and Plesser who had only 2 late free throws in the first half contributed 10 more to finish with 12.  6'11" Scott Schmitt had 13 good minutes neutralizing Hobart down low...For Hobart Paki finished with an impressive 26 highlighted by at least four thunderous dunks. 

Congrats to the Dutchman Garnet Chargers for blowing out Hobart in the second half. While Hobart's Paki dominated underneath in the first half , but Monty Nedd came up lame in the fist half and although he returned he couldn't jump or move well and had to be removed. Union is well coached and plays extremely well as a team and demonstrated a clear gap between their effectiveness and Hobart's over a full game. This afternoon Hobart plays RPI and without a fast moving Nedd, it may be a struggle. Paki might have to score 40 points.We'll see.

[stlawus]

Ithaca breaks SLU's home win streak by hanging on to win a game by 3 where they led 17 in the 2nd half.  Another game where SLU erases a major deficit to get it within 2, but nobody could make the big shot in the last 2 minutes.  4 wide open missed threes in the final minute. You can't shoot 18% from 3 in your own gym and expect to win.  Ithaca's press was the deciding factor, completely threw SLU off in the first half to get them a 16 point lead by having them discombobulated on offense.  I've lost count the amount of games SLU has erased near 20 point deficits only to lose by a possession or 2. Gotta live with it when you have such a young team.

I would say the playoff field as is will likely be the final 6 when it's all said and done.  Can't see Skidmore getting above anyone 4-6 right now. 

[NYHoopsGuru]

Does anyone know why Skidmore and Union didn't play last night? If I remember correctly, something similar happened last year with Skidmore and RPI